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2012 Italian Grand Prix
The 2012 Italian Grand Prix (officially Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d'Italia 2012) will be race number 13 of the 2012 Formula One Season. It will take place on the 9th variation of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, which has been used annually since 2000, on September 9 2012. It will be the 63rd consecutive running of the Italian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship and the 62nd on the Monza circuit. Background Going into the Italian Grand Prix, driver Fernando Alonso leads the Drivers' Championship. lead the Constructors' competition. The Monza circuit is unchanged from the layout used in 2011, however details of the DRS zone placements are yet to be announced (in 2011, two zones were used). The event is set to be a 50th Career start for Vitaly Petrov, and 100th race for Pedro de la Rosa. driver Romain Grosjean is suspended for this race, as a result of causing a first corner incident at the previous race. He will be replaced by Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Pastor Maldonado will also receive two five place grid penalties, one for being unable to serve his penalty in the previous race for jumping the start due to damage on his car that caused him to retire; the second for causing a collision with Timo Glock. Emanuele Pirro served as the racing driver onboard the stewards panel for the weekend. Pirro had competed in Formula One from 1989 through to 1991 racing for the Benetton and Scuderia Italia teams. Pirro however saw more success as a sports car racer winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times and being a double world champion of the American Le Mans series. Practice FP1 In the first practice session Ma Qing Hua stood in for Narain Karthikeyan for , becoming the first Chinese driver to partcipate at a Grand Prix weekend. Jules Bianchi replaced Paul di Resta at Force India whilst Valtteri Bottas stood in for Bruno Senna at Williams. It was the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher that set the fastest time of the day closely followed by the McLaren of Belgium winner Jenson Button, teammate Nico Rosberg and the Ferrari of championship leader Fernando Alonso. Alonso notably stopped out on track with mechanical sessions late in the session. Schumacher, Button, Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen had notable minor offs when they hit the speed bumps at the chicanes. Raikkonen had the biggest off of all when his car hit one of the speed bumbs which proceeded to launch his car into the air. His suffered some minor damage which forced him to the pits for a new front wing. Raikkonen's new teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio, the replacement for regular driver Romain Grosjean performed admirably pacing his car quicker than Raikkonen for much of the session until he began focussing on long distance runs where he finished the session 14th. The Red Bull cars did not display any particular speed with Mark Webber finishing the session 9th and Sebastian Vettel finishing 11th. However they were suspected to be doing long distance runs for much of the session. Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua had his second opportunity to drive an F1 car after the Silverstone Young Driver Test. The Chinese driver finished last and three seconds off the pace of regular driver Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT. Other third drivers participating in the session saw Valtteri Bottas finish the session 13th, three places behind teammate Pastor Maldonado in the Williams whilst Jules Bianchi finished the session 16th, four places behind Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg. FP2 McLaren continued to look quick in the second practice session with Lewis Hamilton leading the way with teammate Jenson Button just behind him. On home turf the Ferrari team ended the session 3rd and 4th. Fernando Alonso edged out his teammate Felipe Massa, however Alonso's session was limited to 17 laps as he was suffering from brake issues and then a suspected gearbox failure. Nico Rosberg finished the session in 5th whilst Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher finished the session in 10th. At the team Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in 6th whilst teammate [Jerome d'Ambrosio finished in 12th. The of Narain Karthikeyan finished the session slightly early with a mechanical failure, therefore finishing the session in last place behind teammate Pedro de la Rosa. FP3 For the second practice session in a row, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver on track. However close behind him was the Tifosi's home favourite Fernando Alonso who had led the drivers for most of the session until Hamilton beat him by a tenth of a second. Paul di Resta finished an impressive third in the session in his Force India whilst the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa was 4th followed by the McLaren of Jenson Button. At Mercedes, Nico Rosberg finished the session 6th, his teammate Michael Schumacher however did not fair as well. Schumacher suffered a KERS failure early in the session which left him handicapped to finish the session 14th. Likewise the Red Bull team appeared to struggle with Mark Webber finishing the session 11th and Sebastian Vettel finishing 12th. Vettel suffered a suspected electrics failure in the dying minutes of the session. Practice Results Qualifying Q1 Q2 Q3 Post-Qualifying Qualifying Results Milestones * 's 250th race. * Pedro de la Rosa's 100th race. * Vitaly Petrov's 50th race. * The one race suspended ban for Romain Grosjean marked the first time an F1 driver had been suspended from racing since the 1994 Formula One Season when then Benetton driver, Michael Schumacher was suspended for two races. Notes Category:2012 Grands Prix Category:Italian Grand Prix